Tag Archives: networth

My taxes for 2007 are going to be a total nightmare. I tried to figure them out on TurboTax a few months ago before getting my official W2s, but I’m afraid I’m missing major deductions that I should be taking (or taking deductions I shouldn’t be taking).

That has led me to seek out a CPA. So far the one who has written back to me charges $155 an hour with a two hour minimum. Eeks. And I thought $80 for TurboTax was pricey.

While $310 for an accountant to do my taxes won’t be the end of the world, it still sucks. I feel like I should be able to figure out taxes for myself given that my overall earnings for the year was less than $35k. Unfortunately that $35k came from a bunch of different places.

Meanwhile, my uncle – who I do some small amounts of freelance work for – told me that while he’s not sending me a 1099 form I have to report the earnings. Of course I have to report the income, but I thought that he also had to report the earnings. So I’m a bit confused about this – if he doesn’t report the earnings will I get him in trouble if I report them?

Do you guys think it’s worth $310+ to have someone prepare my tax returns? Or should I just do TurboTax and hope that I don’t majorly mess anything up?

I’ve been going on and on about how I don’t know where to put my savings. I’ve been trying to save and invest, but right now I have a feeling my portfolio breakdown is not advisable. I still need to open an HSA and money needs to start going into that ASAP, but other than that I’m not sure where to invest.

DEBT-$1037.88 — debt (to be paid from checking as soon as the deposit fully clears in my checking account)-$450 — to go to taxes

TOTAL NET WORTH: $27,346.21

———

So that means right now 71.6% of my total portfolio is taxed once, then is put into a pre-tax account to be taxed again when it take it out one day down the road.

Savings wise, here are my priorities to save for…1. My Health (As I have a high deductible health insurance, I need to make sure my HSA savings at least covers that deductible. Hopefully I’ll never have to use it. Right now I don’t have an HSA account set up. I need to do that pronto.) This also covers general dental care, yearly cleanings, etc, and vision expenses (I’m not sure if an HSA can go to vision costs or not, I’ll have to find out. But I need new contacts!)

2. A House (I’m 24 now, I’d like to purchase a home by the time I’m 30)

3. Grad School (I’m pretty sure I want to go back to grad school one day, either for directing — a huge expense –, an MBA, or a degree in computer interaction design. I want to do this by the time I’m 27.)

4. Cosmetic Dentistry (my teeth make me so sad. I’d love to be able to get them fixed at some point!)

5. Travel / Gifts / Fun / Gadgets (I’d like to save for enjoyment expenditures and gadgets, so I can buy things like a DSLR camera without feeling guilty.)

6. Laser Hair Removal (due to having polycystic ovary syndrome, I have excess hair that grows on my face and it drives me nuts. I also spend a small fortune buying tweezers and razors every other day. If laser hair removal really is permanent then this expense might be worth it. I’ll probably have to save about $5000 to get it done, or maybe just $2000 or something for my face alone.

7. Marriage & Kids (I want to get married when I’m 33 or so and have three kids. Well, one to start with and I’ll go from there. The cost of getting pregnant, thanks to having PCOS, will be huge. I’ll have to get drugged up and do in vitro, probably, over and over again. This is going to be majorly expensive. If I don’t start saving now, I might never be able to have children. Even adopting is expensive, so either way I’ll need the money before I can have a family.)

March is official “be fucking frugal” month. Next month my income goes up $1500, so there will be a lot more flexibility. Unfortunately my boyfriend’s birthday falls BEFORE that. Well, I’ll take him out to a nice dinner and get him a gift that won’t be as extravagant as last year’s Wii. Oh well. I could invest less in my Sharebuilder account this month if I want to spend more on the birthday, so that’s always an option.

I also hypothetically have another $825 owed to me for one of my freelance jobs and another $300+ owed to me for that cell phone bill that my old company was supposed to pay. So if I actually get paid that money, then I’ll be doing fine. But I don’t know when those checks will come, if ever. If they do come, I’m going to put more towards my Roth, and spend a little more on the bf’s birthday.

The good news is that I won’t have much time for spending money in March. My show opens March 28, which means the major cost of the month will be GAS to get to and from rehearsal at the theater about 30 minutes away. That’s why I put $200 in gas for the month. BUT I’m getting paid $500 to direct this production, after the fact, so my balance is going to look a lot healthier in April. It’s March that will be tight, since I don’t know when any of these other paychecks will be coming in.

Sadly, March is also the month when I wanted to seek out a tax consultant to discuss how to arrange my accounting as a freelancer. But I guess I’ll have to take a stab at figuring out my estimated quarterly tax for Q1 08 by myself. Meanwhile, I also have to file my taxes, but I’ll wait to April to do that, so I have some money to at least go through TurboTax or something. Although my income last year was pretty low, prob about $34k or less, so maybe I can get away with filing for free. Hmm. That’s for another entry, eh?

While working 60 hours at a salaried job each week seems beyond boring, diversifying one’s time and one’s ongoing work portfolio can lead to professional fulfillment on many levels, including by not limited to one’s bank account.

I recently found out that in order to be a full-time salaried employee at my current company, I need to sign on for 50-60 hours a week. While I love my job AND the company, that’s still not enough to have me sign every possible work hour away to one job.

Besides boredom, the reason to keep my ‘after 40’ job hours open is because some of my other opportunities pay much better than what I’m spending most of my week on. At my 40 hour per week job I make about $27 an hour right now. But I’m also taking my late evenings to work as a freelance marketing writer, with projects I’m getting paid $50 per hour for.

I’m not sure what my value is as a full-time employee versus freelance, but for some reason I feel like my $50 per hour charge as a freelancer is justified, while I could never imagine asking my freelance full-time employer for such a raise.

When it comes down to it, I’d rather make slightly less at my “day job” and use the opportunity to pitch my writing skills for extra income that ultimately covers health insurance and other things I need.

That brings about the question… how much can I actually make in one month without not sleeping and going completely insane…

I’m going to start checking in about my monthly budget half-way through the month in order to figure out what sort of money I have left to spend on things.

Smart, eh? Yea, I know.

Oh thanks for the recommendations about my bf’s gift in my last entry. I’ll be buying him something in a week or so (can’t afford to now anyway) so keep those recommendations coming! ThinkGeek.com is good start. I never know what computer stuff to get him. He doesn’t have Apple stuff yet, so I can’t go that route (tho he’ll buy a Macbook Pro as soon as they release an updated version). He has tons of computer stuff and I just have no idea about what he needs and what he’d want. Oh, food for thought to all of my fabulous gift recommender’s – he loves, loves, loves anything that’s blue.

Ok, without further ado… my poor budgeting for the 1/2 month leading up to today.

Total Spending feb 1 – 15: $3608.12 (YIKES!)

I thought I was over spending this month. I definitely did not realize how much!!!

A lot of the $ has to do with finally getting around to paying late fees on a variety of bills. I also had a little shopping spree this month, which you’ll notice below. It was all at a designer discount store! I even returned some of it!!!

At the end of the year, from my ING tax account I will pay my taxes. I should not spend all the money on taxes because I’m “taxing myself” at a 25 percent rate for all the money I make, but in the end all my money will not be taxed at that rate.

Things I’m owed money for1. AT&T bills for past 3.5 months, owed over $300 from previous company2. $200 — I need to send in paperwork to old health insurance for doctor’s visits I paid for before my insurance card arrived (should offset dermatologists bill)3. 10 hours of work (I need to file an invoice asap) at news company at $25 an hour, $250

—-What I spent Money on This Month…

$201.41: Verizon Wireless Bill (my minutes went way over last month, grr)

$67.85: Safeway (Groceries)

$62.76: Longs Drugs (drug store)

$129: Health Insurance

$.97: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$44.03: Safeway (Groceries)

$19.08: Safeway (Groceries)

$81.31: Haircut

$55: Brazilian Waxing (ouch it hurt)

$28.71: Brunch for two

$1050: Rent

$6.17: 24 Hour Fitness Dues (i’m not sure why I owed any more money this month, but I’m too lazy to complain about a $6.17 charge. They just better stop charging me now.)

$.75: Parking

$2.98: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$106.41: AT&T Phone Bill (that I didn’t owe that my old company needs to still reimburse me for!)

$.59: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$31.77: Longs Drugs

$.23 Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$71.29: Whole Foods (groceries)

$15.47: Dry Cleaning (spend too much on this.. long story I’ll explain later)

$1.24 Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$113: Hair Color

$23.71: Whole Foods (Groceries)

$7.40: Safeway (Groceries)

$.89: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$19.46: Lunch for Two

$.54: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$65.80: Lucky (Groceries)

$.20: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$500: Transfer to Sharebuilder Investment

$15.77: Whole Foods (Groceries)

$.23: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$71.33: Cable/Internet Bill

$33.19: Whole Foods (Groceries)

$6.50: Lunch

$1.31: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$500: Transfer to Sharebuilder Investment

$50: Transfer to Sharebuilder Investment

$12: Sharebuilder Monthly Fees

$6.99: lunch

$.01: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$75.60: Piazza’s Fine Foods (Groceries)

$30: Gas

$.40: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$37.82: Bookstore

$.18: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$3000: Roth IRA Investment for 2008

$91.20: Smog Check & Oil Change

$20.09: Walgreens (drug store)

$14.06: Clothing

$2.74: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$26.07: Dinner for Two

$18.26: Whole Foods (groceries)

$1.67: Bank of America “Keep the Change Transfer” to savings

$161.34: New Cell Phone

————————————-

Other than investments, my largest cost was obviously groceries…TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING ON GROCERIES

$441.98: Groceries

That’s actually not as bad as I expected, considering how often I go food shopping. I did really good on NOT spending a lot of money on clothing this month. However, I do owe money for various bills I’ve yet to pay. That will come out of my February salary.

I can’t blame anyone else for this mishap. My registration expired… a while ago. However, I paid the $120 registration fee at the DMV (which, I think included a late fee) and was to get my smog checked by Jan. I had until Jan 1 to get my smog checked and get my stickers for my plates.

Of course, being the procrastinating idiot that I am, I waited a little too long to get this done. I received one ticket (for $35) for my expired registration while my car was parked in a public lot. So I finally got around to getting my smog checked THIS MORNING. I paid $90 for my smog check & an oil change that was overdue.

Ten minutes later, I was driving on the freeway and I got pulled over.

I showed the cop my smog receipt and the little registration card (that may or may not have been expired… I’m a bit confused about whether it expired on the 1st of the month, or at the end of the month.)

The worst thing was that somehow my insurance card had gone missing. I kept it in my glove compartment, but the robbers threw everything out of my glove compartment when they went through my car last month. I thought I had put everything back, but apparently my insurance information was missing.

So now I have this “notice to appear” paper that says that I have an infraction for an expired registration and it also notes that I did not have insurance on me, though neither the infraction or misnomer boxes are checked for that. I’m not sure what that means.

The cop said that I should get my sticker and then go to any police department with the paper. He didn’t really explain whether I’m going to owe a zillion dollars or if I just need to prove that I’m actually registered to avoid paying.

This really sucks because today I decided I’m going to start being really tight on my budget and living with a minimal amount in my checking account. I figure I’ll spend less if I pretend I have less to spend. Simple psychology ought to do the trick.

Except now I’m worried I’m going to get an overdraft fee because of all of these unexpected expenses. That’ll teach me to stop procrastinating, eh?

I owe quite a bit of money for different things… $200 for health insurance… $150 for my cyst removal bill… $35 for my ticket… and now who knows how much more for this other ticket-type-thing.

Right now I have $600 in my checking account. I’m supposed to get paid Monday for my work… so that would bring me up to $3900. BUT I plan on putting $1000 of that in a special ING savings account for taxes. That leaves me with $2900, and I have to pay rent in a few days. So I’m at $1850. Not so bad, but after I pay all those bills, plus my phone bill, plus the cable/internet bill, plus the gym bill, plus buy a new phone in two days (my old one is lost and I am eligible for the discount on a new phone on Monday)… well, I won’t have much money left for food.

At least this setup will keep me from spending money on clothes I don’t need! At least that will keep me from

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About Me

The anti-minimalist: I'm the absolute worst with money. I have a shopping addiction. That's exactly why this blog exists. HECC is not a typical personal finance blog. I started it in 2007 to hold myself accountable for binge spending, a dropping networth, and lack of overall fiscal literacy. 10 years later, had achieved a networth of over $500k. Now my goal is to hit $1M by 40. Recently married and with my first kid on the way, things are about to get... interesting. I write about the intersection of mental health and money, spending & investing, and millennial personal finance.